Resource Transparency. Data Accuracy. Reporting Integrity.

In the wake of the global financial crisis, one of the big reminders has been that we need honest and transparent information. Businesses need to become transparent with their shareholders, employees and stakeholders at large about what is happening in their business, and what the true costs and forecast of the company is looking like. For proper transparency a company needs two things: Good data and honest people. However, the reality is, even when a company may have the best of intentions and has honest employees; they still manage to present inaccurate data and end up managing their information in a non transparent manner. There are many organisations who are striving for transparent communication between employees, managers and senior management in terms of what work is being done and how much it’s costing and profiting an organisation. Yet, one of the biggest downfalls, even for popular branded companies, is that the data they have on their costs and resources is poorly managed and analysed inefficiently. This means that one thing that is very beneficial for all companies, regardless of their size, industry or function, is a good resource management software. The largest costs and sources of revenue for a company are dependent on their resources, hence it is critical to track and analyse how resources are employed and managed. All good resource management software should enable the input of accurate data, and should have ability to provide powerful reports that can be produced quickly and easily. In terms of integrity of data that is input, resource management software should have: • Customised formulas on the costs and revenues associated with your human and non human resources for your specific company. • Applications to support the most up to date and real time information on what divisions and projects employees are booked onto, and the level of their utilisation. • Integrated time management and timesheet application to track the actual hours worked. • Access for all employees, managers and senior management, with different levels of access and portals for different types of users. In terms of transparent and accurate reporting, resource management software should be able to: • Produce a resource utilisation and resource availability report, broken down in terms of individuals, teams, locations and departments, where the utilisation can be analysed in terms days, weeks, months and quarters. • Produce a capacity vs demand report that communicates the total available capacity of the companies resources, and the total amount of capacity required based on current and future projects and other non project work. Where comparing the reports simultaneously should allow managers to minimise resourcing gaps. • Produce a planned vs actuals report, allowing a company to improve their forecasting and understand their costs and revenues. • Enable a manager to analyse data in terms of skills, roles, teams and departments. • Provide strong visuals in its reports, including a powerful graphical analysis of the data. Hence, if your company is still using excel spreadsheets, word documents and emails, spending laborious hours producing inaccurate reports, when that time could be better spent elsewhere – make sure that you take the time and money to invest in some decent resource management software.